Are you exercising enough?

The benefits of physical exercise are no joke, but understandably it’s probably not the reason you’re here. You’re here to know if you’re doing enough, so I’ll save the “benefits of physical activity” for another blog - *spoilers* there are INCREDIBLE benefits no matter your age/demographic/injury/illness.

In this blog we explain a bit about how the World Health Organization and Australian Government reached their guidelines for physical activity, and give you some of examples of how that might look practically.

The Guidelines

Here are the guidelines for the MINIMUM amount of exercise we should per doing:

For adults:

150-300 minutes of moderate intensity / 75-150 minutes of vigorous intensity exercises + 2 sessions of resistance exercise PER WEEK.

For children from 5-17 years old:

60 minutes of moderate-vigorous intensity PER DAY,

with 3 of those days incorporating muscle/bone strengthening activities.

The Breakdown (Why so much?)

Before we get into the nitty gritty of things, it’s important we clarify a few bits of terminology:

The guidelines use a unit of measurement known as Metabolic equivalent (MET) when it comes down to determining “how much” is enough/too much - because “moderate intensity” is a bit ambiguous when it comes to exercise.

1 MET is defined as energy expenditure at rest (usually equivalent to 3.5mL of oxygen uptake per kg per minute)

E.g. A brisk walk might have a MET of 3.33, while a run might have a MET of 6.66

When it comes down to “how did they land on that dosage” there is some really helpful bits of information in the Australian Government evidence pack [1]. Essentially. they took a look at the relationship between physical activity (measured in MET.min per week) and various morbidities.

Here’s the simplified overview of the relationship between physical activity and all-cause mortality as outlined in their document [1].

From this graph we can see a few things:

1. There is an initial steep slope in the graph - this means that relatively small increases in the beginning are associated with greater benefits.

2. There is no obvious lower threshold - reinforcing that age old saying that any exercise is better than none!

3. There is no obvious optimal amount - which is why we have a range as the guidelines instead of specific numbers. The guidelines land on 500-1000 MET.min per week - which can be achieved by doing 150 - 300 minutes of moderate intensity activity, or 75 - 150 minutes of vigorous activity each week, or various combinations of moderate and vigorous activity.

So what does it look like?

The “Development of evidence based physical activity for adults (18 to 64 years)” document had a really helpful table for helping dissect what these guidelines look like in practice, so we’ve gone ahead and re-designed it so it’s slightly more easier to digest.

You can see from the table, how different exercise might help you to reach the recommended dosage, but it’s worthwhile to note that this table doesn’t include the additional 2 sessions of resistance training per week!

Resources:

https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240015128

https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/physical-activity-and-sedentary-behaviour-guidelines-adults-18-to-64-years-fact-sheet

https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/development-of-evidence-based-physical-activity-for-adults-18-to-64-years

This blog and the contents within are shared to enrich the understanding that members of the Elevation One community have in relation to physiotherapy and general health. It should not be used to diagnose any medical conditions and is not health advice. We always recommend seeking a medical professional for your health concerns.